COSHAM, (Wiltshire) on the N. side of the road from London to the Bath, from which it is about 9 m. is a pleasant and very
healthy place, being on a dry stony soil, and therefore not very fertile. The Saxon K. Ethelred had a palace here; and it
was the seat of some of the Es. of Cornwal, one of whom, E. Edmund, in the R. of Edw. I. obtained a charter for its Mt.
and the inh. still enjoy several privileges granted it by Richard, his predecessor. Here is an almsh. and a fr. sc. built
by the Lady Margar. Hungerford, since the Rest. The chief support of Cosham is the woollen mf. here being, not only some
considerable clothiers, but a wool-stapler, of the same name and family with Mr. Stump, the clothier of Malmsbury, at
whose table K. Hen. VIII. once dined, with all his retinue. The fields hereabouts are generally, instead of hedges,
inclosed with walls of stones, piled one upon another without any mortar. The p. which is pretty large, is sprinkled up
and down with many pretty seats. It had, till lately, a Mt. on Fr.